Story or no story, the Verizon BlackBerry Storm OS has issues
We gave you our theory, we gave you RIM’s official statement and now people, it’s time to move on. The bottom line is that everyone who snagged a Storm from Verizon ended up with v4.7.0.65. The indisputable caveat – v4.7.0.65 has issues. No firmware is perfect and no future firmware revision will ever be completely bug-free, but what we can tell you is that the folks at RIM and Verizon know v4.7.0.65 might be just a little sub-par. How do we know they know? Why else would they be issuing OS updates just a few weeks after releasing the handset? That’s right people, we got our hands on a preliminary internal communique detailing a series of updates coming soon to a Verizon Storm near you. The first in fact, will likely come next week – just a few short weeks after the launch. Basically, RIM and Verizon have targeted a variety of major issues and will address them through a series of OTA software updates. The list below is split up between issues that will definitely be resolved with the first update next week and issues that will be resolved in a second OTA update that will likely arrive later in December. Hit the jump for the break down and rest a bit easier knowing that whether or not the various issues with v4.7.0.65 are deal breakers for you, Verizon and RIM know there are problems are are working to fix them.
Note that the following is not a complete list of issues that will be covered in the upcoming OS updates. Instead, this is a list of issues being circulated internally at Verizon to ensure that employees do not authorize any Certified Like-new device exchanges for customers citing any of the following as their problems… The first is our favorite by far and no, the last one isn’t a joke – it’s really on there.
Issues to be resolved by the first OTA update (Maintenance Release 1) – December, week 1:
- If a customer receives a call while listening to music at low volume using a wired headset, the music volume may suddenly increase to the highest level (!). Interim recovery instructions: Lower the volume using the buttons on the side of the handset.
- When using voice-activated dialing, incoming audio may be muted. Interim recovery instructions: Enter the menu and select “Activate Handset or Speaker”.
- The handset may reset itself while sitting idle or while using multimedia applications. No interim recovery instructions provided.
Issues to be resolved by a subsequent Maintenance Release:
- Customers may intermittently lose email connectivity via CDMA and/or international roaming modes. Interim recovery instructions: Main menu -> Manage Connections -> Select mobile network -> Turn radio off, then Turn radio on. If this does not resolve the issue, pull the battery.
- When powering on the handset, the radio sometimes does not turn on. Interim recovery instructions: Main menu -> Manage Connections -> Select mobile network -> Turn radio on. If this does not resolve the issue, pull the battery.
- Pressing the send key while the device is in landscape mode will open the phone application in portrait mode, but the speed dial function may not work. Interim recovery instructions: Press escape until the home screen appears, then press the send key with the handset in portrait orientation.
- Sometimes entering characters on the virtual keyboard doesn’t work. Interim recovery instructions: Re-select the character.
Thanks, krazyVZW!
Didn’t the iPhone have a software update THE SAME DAY it was launched? And I seem to recall some issues with the 3G iPhone launch too.
Everyone seems to forget that there are occasionally issues with new phones…
My friend works for a corporate store and got the Storm thinking it would be the bomb. Now he hates it and wants me to sell it on ebay for him. A Blackberry with no physical keyboard is like Obama with no Secret Service. Totally f~ucked.
sprint for life get a samsung rant
Ok, lets start off by saying this site is filled with i phone lovers… when the i phone came out… was there many problems or not… OBVIOUSLY, and this is the first black berry touch screen so give them time and let everything work out, im sure rim will do a superb job as they do with everything else so patients is a virtue.. and stop loving the damn i phone so damn much….. good lord, enough is enough
Is the accelerometer issue a software issue or a hardware issue?
The good news is that they are working on a resolution to this issue. It is too bad that we have to deal with this, but nothing is perfect. It is good to see that they are working on fixing the issues sooner rather than later. I have seen many devices go with no updates for a long time or never getting them when they desperately needed them. Besides, the iPhone has gone through the same time of issue with firmware needing to be updated to get the phone working the way they intended.
I don’t think it is as big of a deal as most people seem to be making it out to be. Though it probably has to do a lot with the hype around this phone.
I like my phone but there are some issues I would like worked on as well. I have trouble doing one of the most basic functions of the phone. Answering it. I push the send button and put it to my ear and it rings again. I push the answer button on the screen and it continues to ring. I always have to push the buttons repeatedly to answer a call.
I also wish that when composing text messages, there was a send button that is accessible right from that screen. I either have to hide the keyboard or access a menu to send the message. That however, is just a small annoyance.
WHERE IS OUR YOUTUBE APP? I watched a video on my friends touch via the YouTube app and watched the same video on my much bigger screen and his was much clearer than mine.
Overall, I do like the phone but I hope Verizon/Rim can make it better through software updates.
Agree 100%. I played with the Storm for awhile. The touch keyboard is horrible. SureType in horrible. The iphone touch screen is superior in every way. That said, I do like and have use a BB. I just like them to have keyboards.
@Storm Trooper
His was on WiFi. Youtube on WiFi is much clearer on my iPhone 3G than Youtube on 3G. Too bad the Storm didn’t come with WiFi…just had to add that in there :p
All the Iphone fanboys are nuts…
Not having any issues with my Storm.
This phone works 10 times better at release than the 3G Iphone I had in July.
On my sixth day and I have yet to drop a single call. (unlike my first 3G Iphone which dropped 43% of calls according to the “genius” when I exchanged it)
Browser doesn’t crash multiple times a day, phone hasn’t locked up and required a reset or a restore. The were all issues on the Iphone.
Everyone seems to give Apple a pass on the 3G Iphone which was released in much worse state if you ask me.
I’d like every BlackBerry fanboy who has bashed Apple and MS in the past to admit that RIM is just as guilty? Anyone? Bueller?
Mighty quiet in here.
I REALLY wanted to love Storm. I’m an iPhone owner and am frankly tired of the lack of a physical keyboard and the reception/call issues, not to mention the silly lack of MMS.
But Storm is a joke. It’s terrible. SureType is a ’solution’ that makes the problem of touchscreen typing 10 times worse. At best, typing long emails on the clickable screen is tiring on the thumbs. At worst, the screen simply doesn’t click and unclick fast enough to keep up with a power user’s thumbs. Typos I’ll blame on me, but when I write a long message and look at the errors, they’re consistently of the “second letter of a two-letter combo is missing” variety. The click mechanism simply isn’t fast enough.
Beyond that, my Storm has a total mind of its own. The accelerometer is a joke. Lag is hair-pullingly frustrating. The phone CONSTANTLY mutes and/or goes into speakerphone for no apparent reason during calls. Voice activation sometimes activates on its own.
This thing has the potential to be a decent consumer phone – the display is beautiful, the media player sounds good through headphones, and the browser is faster and nicer than Bold’s. But for the business user? Total joke.
Make a new Storm with solid firmware and lose the clickable touchscreen in favor of a “boring old” capacitive touchscreen and I’ll take another look. Until then I’m asking Santa to pay my ETF fee so I can switch to AT&T and get a Bold.
I can’t believe those are the only issues addressed!! The phone is crap in it’s current state! It could be functional if:
Allow a feature where you DON’T have to depress the screen to type, allowing for “iphone like” experience.
Add an option to lock the accelorometer (or however you spell it)
Where is the screen off function??? The lock function is stupid, let me customize it so that i can simply turn the screen off.
There are obviously a lot of other things that would help people not justifiably hate this phone. These just seem like a few obvious out of box features that would have solved a lot of problems.
thats whst thougfht no lag or accermoleter issue gonna be fixed thats it back to the bold
Lol! Touché! Well played Dre, well played.
Hold on, these “instructions” for an OTA update don’t FIX anything any seasoned BlackBerry owner would already know or a trained monkey would.
Pull the battery? Reselect the character? Lower the volume with the buttons?
Really? I mean…really? WTF RIM? You take your customers for morons?
I had the VZW 9530 unlocked and I have been using both ATT or TMO SIM cards. I have accounts with both. The GPS works with google maps when I am on TMO.
Here is proof
http://www.blackberryforums.com/general-9500-series-discussion-storm/161302-storm-9530-unlocked-works-north-america-gsm-carriers.html#post1181367
I AGREE WITH LIKEABITE! IM JUST HAPPY TO HAVE ONE, NEVER B4 COULD I TAKE A DUMP WHILE SURFING THE WEB AND WATCHING YOUTUBE. SOFTWARE UPDATES ARE ON THEIR WAY SO SEAT TIGHT (NO PUN INTENDED)!
P.S. AS I TYPED THIS MY STORM LOST IT’S SCROLL ABILITY
I HAD TO REBOOT. LOOKS LIKE MY STORM TOOK A DUMP ON ME
I just got the Storm yesterday and it is very buggy. Sometimes you hit the buttons and they dont respond, then it goes into another application. Has a lag about it also with a very slow response time. My friend has the Iphone, and the blackberry is no comparison. In time, with updates, hopefully it will compare.
I have found that rebooting also takes a little while too. Am I alone in this?
I just got back from the Verizon store and had a chance to play with the Storm. It sucks. Cheap build, the OS is horrible and very slow, scrolling is a nightmare, and the screen is very hard to push and feels flimsy and cheap. Typing is going to cause some serious finger strain on this puppy.
Anyone thinking this phone is better than an iphone has lost their mind and obviously doesn’t know what a quality product is, such as the iphone. Apple has nothing to worry about from this piece of Blackberry crap.
Maybe you already have finger strain and that’s why you had trouble clicking the screen. I have had no problem clicking the screen on my phone and I text quite a bit. It’s no harder than pushing an ordinary button on a phone. BG mentioned in his review that the edges of the screen are harder to click and I checked this out to some extent. I do agree that it is marginally more difficult to click near the edges of the screen but nowhere near enough to be an issue for me. I can only speak for me though. Don’t take my comment too seriously Sean. It’s just jokes. No manufacturer is paying me to defend their products so it’s not that serious for me. I am only speaking from my personal experience. I don’t own an iPhone so I can’t speak on it. I’ve played with it and like it but I also love my Storm despite its issues.
I have been on a mission for years to find the perfect phone. I have had almost every smart phone out there. Everyone that knows me laughs at how I have a new phone every few weeks. I even just order the Verizon Touch Pro & received it yesterday. Didn’t like it compared to the Storm though. The Storm does have issues that annoy me. It seems a bit slower than the Bold, the camera takes forever to take a picture, it takes a while for the accelerometer to switch to the right position, and my fat fingers make it pretty difficult to type text messages. But, all in all, it is a step closer to what I’m looking for. The iPhone came closest , but yet they left off just a few of the most common sense things. Positive things about the Storm I like: I really like the SURE TYPE keyboard option that I can actually type on with my fat fingers. It has a flash, it takes video….. just some things that other phones are lacking. The perfect phone….. would be sooo simple to come up with.,,,, here it is: #1) Work seamlessly with both Macs and PC’s “FULL SUPPORT AND OPTIONS ON BOTH PLATFORMS” #2) offer Blackberry Connect #3) Offer CDMA(Verizon) + GSM(AT&T) DUAL MODE(2 PROVIDERS/2Numbers at same time) in the US so we truely have service everywhere #4) with 5MP or 8MP fast acting Camera that does video @ 640 x 480 @ 30fps #5) wifi!!! #6) Blackberry type SURE TYPE text entery option and full keyboard in land scape mode #6) capable of modem tethering easily with both Macs & PC’s #7) offer the best RF Signal reception possible without frying your brain #8) Support all internet protocalls…. JAVA #9) Don’t lock out 3rd parties on software so we can actually have fun on our phones. I would pay well over $1500 for a phone that has all of this.
if you’re rebooting from a hard reset, it takes a while. same on all blackberry phones.
Thanx. That’s good to know.